The $18-billion company hopes that with Discover, users will now spend more time on Facebook, which in turn could boost advertising revenue.Shelley Singh&Anumeha Chaturvedi | ET Bureau | September 19, 2016, 08:11 IST

Facebook Groups, an ads-free platform of Facebook, has launched Discover Groups in India, offering users of the social network a tool to find people who share similar interests. The $18-billion company hopes that with Discover, users will now spend more time on Facebook, which in turn could boost advertising revenue. In an exclusive interview with ET's Shelley Singh and Anumeha Chaturvedi, the global product manager for Facebook Groups, Adit Vadiya, talks about Groups' features and how the tool is helping people and communities. Edited excerpts:

Can you share details on how Facebook Groups has evolved over the past few years?

Facebook Groups is for people to connect with the meaningful things in their life. If you have a hobby or an interest, you can join a community with people who share that interest. The product is born with this idea that there are people who share your passions and goals and help you achieve that. Mark Zuckerberg's running group, where people share and post about their passion for running, is one of the largest groups created over the past year.

Groups is also an example of how people support each other. A group called Good Sister in Iceland-—which connects more than 50,000 women—represents more than a third of Iceland's female population, so they connect a third of the female population and put them in a safe space. It's a space where women can support each other.

How is Facebook Groups faring in India?

Facebook has about 1.7 billion users and over a billion people access Facebook Groups each month. In India, we started Groups in 2010 and 80 million people access groups here each month. In India, groups has empowered people to share their interests or hobbies. A group called Mumbai Moms has 70,000 members who can ask each other questions and share advice on parenting. In addition to parenting, school and education, food and sports are the other common groups in India. There is an inspiring story of a teacher who created Teachers Help Teachers, where one can share teaching tips, content and advice. A group called Kai Thari has over 6,000 women who are passionate about handloom.

How much revenue comes through Facebook Groups?

We don't monetise Groups. An overwhelming proportion of the revenue comes from ads on Facebook, and Groups doesn't have ads. And we do not have plans to monetise Groups. We are focused on how we can help people find the most meaningful groups to share their interests. We look at it more as how Groups can be more valuable to the world.

Which are the new tools and features you have launched for Groups?

In Q3 of 2014, we were 700 million monthly active users. What has allowed us to grow (to more than 1 billion users now) is building new functionalities.

The feedback we got was that people were not finding it easy to find groups relevant to them, so we launched Groups Discover. This helps you browse groups in 25 different categories from parenting to support groups, and neighbourhoods and sports to food. With Discover, people can discover public and closed groups and it will help connect even more people to their passions and hobbies. You can create a poll that allows members to vote on different topics. Earlier this year we launched Facebook Live, which is a way to instantly stream and broadcast a video. Teachers can have a virtual classroom and a discussion happens in real time. When we talk of what's next, we see these new vectors of growth and communication through which people can elevate their discussions.

How many users of Groups are coming through smartphones and how many through smart screens? WhatsApp has its own groups. Do you plan to integrate or link the two?

Overall, the product is very healthy on mobiles. We don't break down our numbers by platforms. Groups is aproduct you can use on many devices. Our mobile numbers are very strong. WhatsApp is a product that has had tremendous growth over recent years, and when you think of WhatsApp and Facebook Groups, they're different communities. With Groups, we are focused on how we connect people to the most meaningful things in their lives, with people you don't know or may never meet.